Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I have seen some of those reports in the newspapers. I can confirm that I was at the said meeting. Let me be clear—as I said yesterday—that we make no apology whatsoever for seeking to take the media sector into the 21st century. I noted yesterday that those opposite favour a commentator named Mr Peter Cox. Well let me give you Mr Peter Cox’s comments from his website entry on the digital revolution. He says:

In my 30 years in the media industry I have never seen such rapid technological, market and regulatory changes that we are witnessing today. Every company and individual in Australia is affected by the paradigm shift occurring in the media, communications and entertainment markets caused by the Digital Revolution in Australia and around the world.

In October, he went on to say:

If all these people think, out in the future, advertising is going to pay for everything, it cannot and it will not. The advertising model is not broken yet, but it is a limited model.

That is the preferred commentator of those opposite. We agree entirely with Mr Cox. That is why we have put in place a package of measures that include announcements we made in January—